Fembruary: Order of the Azure Star

Fembruary has kicked off (well, 11 days ago) so here's my first entry: a squad of Sisters of Battle knock-offs!

I've liked the Citadel Sisters of Battle models for a while, but like almost all GW minis they're bloody expensive. So when I saw these ladies on Etsy I picked them up for $35, which is $25 cheaper than the official models.

I named them after female relatives and one special lady, so allow me to introduce, from left, Battle Sisters Louise and Joan; Sister Superior Alicia; and Battle Sisters Sandra and Sian. The models come in separate pieces and there's a ton of weapon options including hand flamers, heavy meltas and chainswords.

Instead of being the usual silver, black or grey prints, these were purple, which is a bit different. I kicked off by spraying them all with aluminium paint to save time, and which would come back to bite me on the arse later on. Once dry they were given a thin wash of Nuln Oil to shade them.

The aluminium was given a light drybrush with Silver before I hit the details. I painted all the blue bits with a basecoat of Heavy Blue, which is a really nice shade and covers well. That was highlighted with Flat Blue and Deep Sky Blue and then everything got a coat of matte varnish just to cut down on the shininess of the metallic paints. Alicia's sword was originally painted Silver but it didn't cover well, so I went over it with Leadblecher instead.

Their straps and holsters were basecoated with Chocolate Brown before having some layers of Mahogany Brown and Balor Brown for the highlights, and then a wash with Agrax Earthshade to tie the highlighting together. The grenades are just Khorne Red and Mephiston Red with some Nuln Oil to bring out the details.

Louise's melta gun was a bit boring until I remembered about the scorched metal effect. It's just layers of Druchii Voilet, Drakenhof Nightshade and Seraphim Sepia dabbed on the barrel of the gun, and it looks very effective.

All the other weapons were painted Black, highlighted with Neutral Grey and then had their covers painted in the same blues as the fleur-de-lis on their armour.

I went for something different on the bases, using Agrellan Earth to get a cracked look. After watching a GW tutorial on how to use it, I daubed it on and left it for a good hour or so to dry. I'm not that happy with the results; I mean, it looks OK but it isn't quite what I was going for. I can't work out if I used too little of the paint but after a coat of matte varnish and some tufts and stones, it's kind of growing on me.

The aluminium spray paint caused an issue when touching up errant bits of blue and brown. I don't have a metallic that's an exact match for it; Iron Warriors, Plate Metal, Gun Metal and Leadbelcher are all too dark and Silver is too light. I should have just sprayed a pool of aluminium into a plastic tub and brushed it on, but I ended up just using a mix of Leadbelcher and Silver and hoping for the best.

They look really good, and despite the problem caused by the spray paint they were pretty easy to get done. Well, they would have been if work hadn't kept getting in the way, meaning I did these over an eight-day period, painting them mainly very early in the mornings. I have five more Sisters to paint, and I'll start on them as soon as I've decided which colours to use.

There's more Fembruary entries to come as well as another Muppets' mission, so stay tuned!